I'm with TwoDeadDogs, join the PFA and go and meet up with your local strut. There will be no shortage of people who'd appreciate your help on their own projects - no money in it but you might get the odd bit of free flying out of it.
Yes there are some bad practices going on in permit aircraft operation, but there are also some extremely good people you can learn a lot from. I'd venture that although the ratio is hopefully more favourable, the same is probably true of CofA aircraft.
G